After hearing Greg Laurie endorse a book by Larry Eskridge titled God's Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America, I was immediately interested. I "Kindled" the book and I have found it invigorating and thought-provoking. The book chronicles the "Jesus People Movement" in the United States of which Calvary Chapel was a part. I first began attending Calvary Chapel in 1980 as a child and a relationship with Jesus has been a massive, transformative part of my life since. The "counterculture revolution" was a bit before my time, but the Holy Spirit utilised the thirst for enlightenment and truth to direct many hungry, lost souls to the saving knowledge of Christ.
Some of the facets that marked the hippie Christian movement throughout the States was using the book of Acts as a script for daily living. There were people who actually sold their belongings and moved into communes or shared dwellings to have "all things in common." Coffee shops featuring Gospel presentations and Christian rock music popped up across the nation. Runaways, hippies immersed in a hedonistic anti-establishment bent, and all manner of down and out people were evangelised. What struck me as I read these accounts was those sharing Christ did more than give a message. They shared the love of Christ in generous, practical ways. Simple things like the use of a toilet or a shower was extended to homeless hippies. Humble peanut butter sandwiches and coffee were given away for free. Music the culture was familiar with was played accompanied with the message of salvation in Christ alone. The new Christians didn't often have too much, and they were willing to give all they had away for the sake of Jesus.
Now this is where the modern church has diverged greatly. The hippies of those days have cut their hair and moved out of their communes. People have bank accounts, careers, and retirement funds. They have their spouses, 1.9 children, two vehicles, and their holidays planned a year in advance. The story has been repeated again and again: those anti-establishment idealists have become the institution - and it is a far cry from the book of Acts. Some churches even set forth the passage in Acts 2:42-47 as a model for their vision of ministry: "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.
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Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
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Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common,
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and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need.
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So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart,
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praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." Churches these days have idolised the second part of verse 47 but have neglected the preceding verses! This is not intended to be a formula for church growth, but an example of the outworking of the Holy Spirit to save and enable God's people to live in unity.
So what should we do? Are we to sell all we have and live in communes? No. But for the church to become effective as at the first we must be willing to. We must be willing to quit our careers, move our families, and give generously according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. My observations are not an indictment over a particular fellowship, but the general impression having been in the church for over 30 years. When I read this book it came to me: over time "church" has become more an activity than community. It can be more a hierarchy than a Body. People can attend church because of what they can receive rather than what they can give. Is there a hunger for God at the first or just a desire to further establish our theology? We are full! Yet we are content and discontented at the same time. I can fall into this rut as well. We would love to see changes in theory, but we are unwilling to change. We are unwilling to make the sacrifices necessary to see the fulfillment of Acts 2:42-47 in our churches, families, and communities. There is no place for signs and wonders because we do not expect them, nor do we need them. How much of your life actually necessitates a walk of faith in God? Walking in faith grants us strength from God, but without faith we are weak as any other man.
It would be wrong for us to read of the "Jesus People Movement" and long for those days, just as it is foolish for us to try to create the conditions of the early church so we might duplicate their result. We live in a different culture; it is a new day. Instead of trying to return to a point in time, recreating the past through present efforts, we must return to Jesus Christ, our First Love. The power of Jesus to save remains unabated and the power of the Holy Spirit as fervent and fiery as ever. God has plans for you and your church fellowship in these last days. He will do a new thing if we will return to the old path of faith and complete reliance upon God in all things. Anything short of an all-out commitment will not do. Are you willing to do whatever Christ commands? If God told you to quit your job, sell your house, your two cars, your stuff, and bring your spouse and 1.9 kids along for the ride, would you? What is holding you back? Don't make the mistake of giving God your wretched past and holding onto your future. He has plans for you, to give you a future and a hope. Is that good enough for you? :) God help me: may You be my all in all!
10 October 2013
08 October 2013
How God Handles Authority
This morning I was struck by how God's ways are so unlike the ways of man. Give a man a little authority and he will fight to maintain it; God has all authority and He chooses to allow men to do as they choose. He does not force. He warns, but does not threaten. He tells us the certain negative consequences of our rebellion and disobedience, and even allows His own children to wander from the right way.
This facet of God's gracious character is displayed when the children of Israel demanded that Samuel establish a king over them. When the people communicated their desire to be as other nations and have a king to lead them into battle, Samuel was angry. He knew that God was the King of the nation and over all, and this desire to have a king was a grave affront to the grace He had demonstrated. For the Hebrews to say they wanted an earthly king instead of God, it was like a son disowning his own father. Instead of smashing this insurrection with a heavy hand, God chose to give the people their desire. 1 Samuel 8:7-9 reads, "And the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. 8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day--with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods--so they are doing to you also. 9 Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them." God was rejected by His own people, the ones He delivered from slavery in Egypt and brought them victorious into the Promised Land, having established them as a nation. Though He did everything for them, they cast Him carelessly aside.
God did an amazing thing in allowing His people to have a king. Saul started well, but became proud, bloodthirsty, and quite insane. God later established David as king, a man after his own heart. Though the people rejected God by wanting to be like others, God would send a Messiah to redeem all people from their sin through the line of David. This is phenomenal, that God would redeem even the wanderings of His own people to provide salvation through Christ for all! Jesus Christ was rejected by the Jews, even as the Father's rule was rejected by the Jews in Samuel's day. God has even redeemed this as well, for because of the Jew's refusal of Christ as Saviour the Gentiles have been brought into the kingdom of God through the Gospel. In Christ we see that same gentle spirit, meekness, and all authority. The Good Shepherd knows when His sheep wander, and He allows them to do so. In the end His purposes will be obtained, and He receives the glory for it. When we wander, He pursues us to win us back.
In the position of authority God has granted you, do you tend towards domineering? Do you fight and angle for control? When the authority God has given to you is challenged do you become angry and take up the case with God? Or do you threaten, force, or coerce others to fall in line through your own schemes? When the authority of Moses was challenged in Korah's rebellion, he fell on his face before God. God fought for him. When the authority of David was challenged by his own son, he fled the city and trusted God. God delivered him from the sword and established him again upon the throne. When Jesus was betrayed, falsely accused, tortured and murdered - though the Son of God, God-made-flesh with all power and authority from the Father - He allowed the scourge to open His back, the thorns to pierce His brow, and nails to pierce His hands and feet. He said, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." Three days after His death Jesus rose to life glorified, having all authority over life, death, and hell. Those who remain in their sins will face the fierceness of God's wrath, but those who heed His warnings and repent, trusting in Christ as Saviour, will be saved.
All on this earth will someday answer to the Ultimate Authority: God. The supernatural way He loves people and compassionately, patiently offers them mercy and grace with forgiveness is the touchstone for how the authority God has granted to us must be exercised. On our own this is impossible, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!
This facet of God's gracious character is displayed when the children of Israel demanded that Samuel establish a king over them. When the people communicated their desire to be as other nations and have a king to lead them into battle, Samuel was angry. He knew that God was the King of the nation and over all, and this desire to have a king was a grave affront to the grace He had demonstrated. For the Hebrews to say they wanted an earthly king instead of God, it was like a son disowning his own father. Instead of smashing this insurrection with a heavy hand, God chose to give the people their desire. 1 Samuel 8:7-9 reads, "And the LORD said to Samuel, "Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. 8 According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day--with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods--so they are doing to you also. 9 Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them." God was rejected by His own people, the ones He delivered from slavery in Egypt and brought them victorious into the Promised Land, having established them as a nation. Though He did everything for them, they cast Him carelessly aside.
God did an amazing thing in allowing His people to have a king. Saul started well, but became proud, bloodthirsty, and quite insane. God later established David as king, a man after his own heart. Though the people rejected God by wanting to be like others, God would send a Messiah to redeem all people from their sin through the line of David. This is phenomenal, that God would redeem even the wanderings of His own people to provide salvation through Christ for all! Jesus Christ was rejected by the Jews, even as the Father's rule was rejected by the Jews in Samuel's day. God has even redeemed this as well, for because of the Jew's refusal of Christ as Saviour the Gentiles have been brought into the kingdom of God through the Gospel. In Christ we see that same gentle spirit, meekness, and all authority. The Good Shepherd knows when His sheep wander, and He allows them to do so. In the end His purposes will be obtained, and He receives the glory for it. When we wander, He pursues us to win us back.
In the position of authority God has granted you, do you tend towards domineering? Do you fight and angle for control? When the authority God has given to you is challenged do you become angry and take up the case with God? Or do you threaten, force, or coerce others to fall in line through your own schemes? When the authority of Moses was challenged in Korah's rebellion, he fell on his face before God. God fought for him. When the authority of David was challenged by his own son, he fled the city and trusted God. God delivered him from the sword and established him again upon the throne. When Jesus was betrayed, falsely accused, tortured and murdered - though the Son of God, God-made-flesh with all power and authority from the Father - He allowed the scourge to open His back, the thorns to pierce His brow, and nails to pierce His hands and feet. He said, "Father, forgive them. They know not what they do." Three days after His death Jesus rose to life glorified, having all authority over life, death, and hell. Those who remain in their sins will face the fierceness of God's wrath, but those who heed His warnings and repent, trusting in Christ as Saviour, will be saved.
All on this earth will someday answer to the Ultimate Authority: God. The supernatural way He loves people and compassionately, patiently offers them mercy and grace with forgiveness is the touchstone for how the authority God has granted to us must be exercised. On our own this is impossible, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!
07 October 2013
Labour and Submission
This week I heard a great message on the subject addressed in Hebrews 4:11: "Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." This is an interesting paradox, that we should have to labour to enter into the rest God has provided for us. There is a rest God offers which transcends the cessation of activity. This rest God speaks of can be intentionally entered no matter our circumstances, just like the peace God offers that passes understanding. We will never be perfectly at rest until we are free from the fetters of this body of flesh, yet we are called to labour to enter that rest today. It is not a fleeting mirage that taunts us, ever slipping from our grasp, but a state of heart and way of living we enjoy as we abide in Christ.
This touches on something I have been thinking about often of late, the contrast between being passive and submissive. Biblical submission is something often misunderstood. Some correlate submission and passivity, but they are complete opposites. These two responses are defined not by outward actions, but the condition of the heart. When someone is passive, it is defined as the absence of outward activity. When we submit to God and one another in love, at times it can look like passivity. Yet submission is the voluntary laying down of our will in obedience to the Father, purposing even in outward inaction to rely wholly upon God. "Submit" is a verb; it is an action we purpose to take. Submission to God is always intentional and impossible to accomplish without faith in God. Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
Submission is a labour of faith in which God is well pleased. Jesus gave His back to the scourge, His cheeks to the smiters, and His hands and feet to crude Roman nails in submission to the Father. The response of Christ to the buffeting of his tormentors may have appeared outwardly passive, but in reality it was nothing of the sort. His path to the cross was not as a passive sheep, ambling onwards in ignorance, but was purposeful, intentional submission as the Lamb of God sent to be a sacrifice for sin. Let us submit to one another in love, casting our cares upon Christ because He cares for us. All our burdens He has already bourne. We are also called to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, to love one another as He has loved us.
This touches on something I have been thinking about often of late, the contrast between being passive and submissive. Biblical submission is something often misunderstood. Some correlate submission and passivity, but they are complete opposites. These two responses are defined not by outward actions, but the condition of the heart. When someone is passive, it is defined as the absence of outward activity. When we submit to God and one another in love, at times it can look like passivity. Yet submission is the voluntary laying down of our will in obedience to the Father, purposing even in outward inaction to rely wholly upon God. "Submit" is a verb; it is an action we purpose to take. Submission to God is always intentional and impossible to accomplish without faith in God. Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."
Submission is a labour of faith in which God is well pleased. Jesus gave His back to the scourge, His cheeks to the smiters, and His hands and feet to crude Roman nails in submission to the Father. The response of Christ to the buffeting of his tormentors may have appeared outwardly passive, but in reality it was nothing of the sort. His path to the cross was not as a passive sheep, ambling onwards in ignorance, but was purposeful, intentional submission as the Lamb of God sent to be a sacrifice for sin. Let us submit to one another in love, casting our cares upon Christ because He cares for us. All our burdens He has already bourne. We are also called to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ, to love one another as He has loved us.
30 September 2013
Through the Keyhole
I am awed by the complexity of life on earth. When I turned on the TV the other day, there was a program about Emperor Penguins. How those creatures survive in such brutal conditions is nothing short of miraculous! The instincts within those created animals (all creatures are created by God) enable them to procreate, pass the egg gently from female to male, and then walk with the egg balanced carefully on the feet. After handing off the egg, the female heads off to hunt. I saw the show for less than five minutes, but my mind was blown by the amazing abilities and rare beauty of those majestic creatures.
From the smallest single-celled organism to the sprawling heavens above, all boldly proclaim the awesomeness of God's creative majesty. The stars displayed in the night sky twinkle from millions of light years away. It struck me that when we look up into the sky and admire the beauty of countless stars, we are simply peering through a keyhole to catch but a glimpse of God's majesty. That is how awesome and great God is. He is so beyond our comprehension, yet through nature His beauty can be seen. But God was not content simply to create matter, animals, humans, and spirits. He desired to be known by them and to be with them. Unwilling to remain apart from man because of man's rebellion, God saw fit to reveal Himself to us as a Man: Jesus Christ who is called Immanuel, God with us. He was not simply and orator or a proponent of social justice, but One who demonstrated divine love for all people through His sacrificial death. Jesus also revealed His power over death through His resurrection and ascension before many witnesses.
How great is our God! Moses sang in Exodus 15:11 after God delivered the Israelites through the Red Sea and destroyed their enemies, "Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" Answer? No one! Nothing! Let us glorify, praise, and thank Him. May God open our eyes to behold Him so we might better appreciate His wonders!
From the smallest single-celled organism to the sprawling heavens above, all boldly proclaim the awesomeness of God's creative majesty. The stars displayed in the night sky twinkle from millions of light years away. It struck me that when we look up into the sky and admire the beauty of countless stars, we are simply peering through a keyhole to catch but a glimpse of God's majesty. That is how awesome and great God is. He is so beyond our comprehension, yet through nature His beauty can be seen. But God was not content simply to create matter, animals, humans, and spirits. He desired to be known by them and to be with them. Unwilling to remain apart from man because of man's rebellion, God saw fit to reveal Himself to us as a Man: Jesus Christ who is called Immanuel, God with us. He was not simply and orator or a proponent of social justice, but One who demonstrated divine love for all people through His sacrificial death. Jesus also revealed His power over death through His resurrection and ascension before many witnesses.
How great is our God! Moses sang in Exodus 15:11 after God delivered the Israelites through the Red Sea and destroyed their enemies, "Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?" Answer? No one! Nothing! Let us glorify, praise, and thank Him. May God open our eyes to behold Him so we might better appreciate His wonders!
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